I love football
 

The more I learn about it, the more I love it. I never knew how complex it was. This is the first year that I've gotten into the draft, and it's made it that much more exciting. I so can't wait for the season to start!

Oh, and thanks to those I have driven crazy with questions. You know who you are. I appreciate it.

you have over 19000 posts and been here for 3 years......but this is the first time you've gotten into the draft? what the

quit stalking the women folk

Awesome. This is very cool. Hopefully by this time next year we have you spouting off about the nuances of the Cover 2 defense. :p

ok jeb

I know that a blitz is when more than just the d-line goes for the quarterback.

Cover 2 requires a fast MLB. Still not sure about the specifics of it though.

Yep, good to hear, Luv. I've been a football junkie since 1989, and I learn new things all the time. It really is a great game.

Blitz is where your grandpa has too many jack and cokes and passes out on the couch.

How long have you been watching football?

That would be "blitzed".

In general, about 3 years. I hear people talk about different offensive and defensive plays, but never knew what they were talking about. Finally got people who would be patient enough with me to go over basics like that. This year, I decided to focus on learning more about the draft. It's made it that much more exciting. I want to see who pans out, and how we're going to develop our team.

I had no idea about the Cover 2 and didn't know what a blitz was after three years of watching football.

My wife used to go to the games with me just to watch the players run around in spandex. Then she decided to go out and buy Holly Robinson's book Get Your Own Damn Beer, I'm Watching the Game!. The next thing I know, she's talking to me about offensive sets and zone blitzes. I was highly impressed.

If you are looking to expand your football knowledge, you should give that book a try. According to her, it does a good job expaining the game of football in layman's terms.

Oh please.

And I still don't know about a Cover 2. Only that it requires a fast MLB.

I just bought that book a week ago! I haven't gotten too far into it yet, but my schedule is getting back to normal. I'll have it read by next weekend.

i I love football and football weather. That first autumn day where it is crisp. marching band drums playing in the background. 19 of your coldest buddies sitting right next to you in a inflateable kittie pool that is now turned into the largest gathering of miller light this side of your own apartment. Cheerleader upskirt shots, fat guy endzone dances, and victory formations

me neither, but I was 9 years old at the time :)

I was in color guard. We had to be at every home varsity game. I never paid much attention to the game, but I learned that true football weather requires at least two layers of clothes.

Cover 2 basically refers to the coverage scheme......there are different ways to play it this is "Tampa 2"

Hell I barely knew about middle linebackers at the time....

Alright, I give. How old were you at the time?

i love cover 2 exept it really pussifies your MLB. I want my Middle Linebacker attacking, villifying, raping, pillaging, desparaging, shockifying, satisfying

15

Well if you don't play it that way......there's this giant hole in the middle of your secondary when your safeties run back to get the WR's.

That's hot.

I know I was just point out what I don't like the cover 2. I am from the old school physical football. Nitchke, butkis, Lambert, Maslawski, It drives me insane to watch teams dink and dunk you all the time. In my day we not only take candy from the baby we put hand the ball off to john riggins and he marches it into the endzone.

I prefer that style of defense too, but sometimes it's hard to play when you don't have the talent. i.e. 2004 Chiefs.

Personally I think the cover 2 is an alright defensive scheme it's not my favorite by any means.

It's great against dink/dunk west coast offense type teams. But against vertical teams with alot of weapons it can be exploited unless you have phenomal athletes all over the place.

The way the nfl is... so evenly matched cover 2 and keeping the game infront of you will keep you in most games. Unles its chiefs steelers

Okay, so in a Cover 2, there's pressure on the CB's to make sure that the WR's don't make it past them for a deep pass. Otherwise, your safeties have a lot of area to cover. I can see how it makes the MLB responsible for stopping any running game or shallow pass.

Does that sound right?

Cover 2 devalues corners because really all they do is play from the line to 10-15 yards back they play their zone. They have to be able to tackle well and play the flats and screens and stuff like that....

Really the pressure is on the safeties because if the WR is running deep it's their job to pick up the WR deep and cover him 1-1.

we should go to the flex 4 as our base defense

cover 2 puts alot less pressure on the qb because there ususally aren't many reads. Out of most D's cover 2 probably blitz the least and aren't really disguesed.

You got it.

The idea is to keep absolutely everything in front of you. No big plays.

It's a defense ideal for shutting down big-time QBs. Manning fell pretty badly to it in the playoffs, it neutered Bulger, and bankrupted Alex Smith and Matt Leinart of ideas.

If the QB is hungry for that big play, he'll throw right into the teeth of your defense downfield. Your CBs are to cover a smaller zone in the flats out on the sides, usually not very far down the field, and the safeties are each covering half of the field. The LBs are shutting down medium-range pass routes. Manning got 3 INTs because he couldn't keep his hand out of the cookie jar and kept going for those deep tosses.

If the QB adjusts properly, like Marc Bulger did, he'll settle for the "check down" receiver, which is the guy you keep near him in case he doesn't have anybody else to throw to. It's usually the RB or FB out of the backfield, no further than 5 yards down the road. And that's where it helps to (a.) have tenacious DEs (Hali and Allen) who'll try to chase those guys down, and (b.) super quick LBs (DJ, Harris, Edwards) to stop the guy before any major gain is had.

It's renouned as a "bend but don't break" defense.

Sort of. The MLB is responsible for the deep middle of the field. He has to be fast and quick enough to get down the field at the snap.

Here is a diagram. It places less emphasis on elite cornerback talent because they don't have to match up one-on-one with stud WRs.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/443/cover2ps3.jpg

i like the 3-4 the best because it invovles putting the largest man possible right up front to set the tempo. I just can imagine when it was designed some guy was like "Well yeah? I got this fat guy and i am going to put him here! WHat are you going to do about that!"

This is what we normally use, right?

http://z.about.com/d/football/1/8/h/1/fig11.jpg

And that illustrates why if you have a bad line this defense sucks......if you have to blitz guys a reciever will basically run into a wide open hole on the field.

That's just showing a standard 4-3 defensive aligment. 4 linemen, three linebackers and 4 defensive backs. It's not illustrating their assignments.

But yes, we use a 4-3. The 3-4 is for mad scientists with ridiculous talent everywhere.

God i love mad scientests

because we always run zone we ususally don't shift much when the other team goes in motion. We might swing the will up alittle bit thats about it

Okay, so, if Herm likes the Cover 2, we need two strong safeties and two good CB's. Do we have that? HE seemed to take care of the line pretty well with the draft. And who is our MLB now that Mitchell is gone?

Our corners are overpaid for the scheme really.........

You don't need two good CBs...you just need two decent ones that can tackle and are relatively smart.

But yes, good to great safeties are a must, they have to cover lots of ground. Hopefully we have those with Pollard and Page (both rookies last year).

Our MLB is Napoleon Harris, who is much more suited for the C2 than Kawika was. He's taller, faster and quicker. We signed him in free agency. He was actually drafted by the Raiders and was part of the Randy Moss trade.

nate harris.. I will get my scoutting book out to see what notes I have on him... Ok here it is "really fast big black guy" There you go!

He's also more injury prone...........he's basically stop gap.....we also need more/better lineman.

Safety, D-Tackle and MLB are the most important positions in a Cover 2

We got a faster dude who's tailor-made for the cover 2, Napolean Harris. His rookie year, he was the MLB for the Raiders' Super Bowl squad, and for the past couple years played for the #1 run defense in the league, the Vikings.

Our safeties are young and have great potential. Jarred Page and Bernard Pollard both showed nothing but talent last year and they earned the starting spot this year over incumbent veterans.

Our CBs are old, but they are decorated guys. Ty Law has three Super Bowl rings with the Patriots, numerous Pro Bowls, and personal tormentor of Peyton Manning. Complimenting him is Patrick Surtain, who's a former Pro Bowler as well, and sometimes still plays like a shut down corner.

Our defense is in real good condition for 2007.

I had forgotten about acquiring Harris. Who are our CB's?

Answered my next question before I asked it!

"I love football"
 

Yeah, it's ok. ;)

Well Derrick Brooks has done a nice job in the D not being a MLB.

Ty Law and Patrick Surtain.

They are old and we need new ones, but they are pretty well suited for the scheme. Good tacklers.

Offense....

I know that a Flea Flicker is when the QB passes the ball to the RB in order to throw the defense off. The RB then returns it to the QB, who goes for a deep pass.

Yup.

ChiefsPlanet criticized the Chiefs quite a bit last year for not pulling that particular prank enough.

Here is one of the easiest things to learn about offensive football - the passing tree. It explains all the different routes receivers can run. Once you understand that alot of stuff becomes clear:

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7...ingtreeuk2.gif

It was so cool to see in person! Awesome. It would also require a good O-line, no?

Oh goodness.

Honestly, this is going to sound like a BS answer, but it's sincere:

Every single offensive play you could draw up depends on a good OL.

More than any other position in the NFL, the quality of OLs determine how good a team is.

I don't need to explain that this doesn't bode well for the Chiefs.

It's just showing you the different routes receivers can run, branching out from a formation with four different wide receivers.

The slant obviously slants into the middle fo the field. The fade goes down the field and "fades" toward the sideline. The "curl" has the receiver running downfield, stopping and curling back.

Watching plays develop when you know WTF is going on is fun. There's nothing like seeing a guard pull around the corner and look for a linebacker to crush. :)

Between the Oline, backs, and WR's, how on earth do people keep track of everything everyone is doing on a play?

It takes a keen eye and watching about a million games.

I'm nowhere near that level of perception, but if you've ever seen Dick Vermeil commentate a game, there's a perfect example.

You mean fans? They don't. Just watch the offensive linemen. They take you to where the play is going 90 percent of the time. Or watch the ball, whatever. On passing plays I usually glance at the offensive line first to see if anyone is getting beat, then I look at the quarterback.

I could go on with questions like this all night. I'm definitely looking forward to making that book my bedtime reading. I just can't wait. I want to be able to go to games, really watch them, and be able to know what's going on without asking whoever's with me what happened. Goal for the Summer.

I love Hot Naked Cheerleaders. Not KC Chiefs Cheerleaders... but most every other hot naked Cheerleaders are great.

If you have the ability to do it (DVR or TiVO), you can often see and understand a lot more about a play and why it did or didn't work by rewinding and watching a play a couple of times. Also good for watching defensive plays, because often 2 or 3 things will happen that lead to a sack, strip or interception that are never mentioned by the TV crew.

They all close their eyes when doing back flips. That's a cool looking picture, although I probably think so for different reasons than you guys.

Active day and a long evening. I'm beat.

Thanks for talkin' football with me where I can understand it. I appreciate it!

Sweet dreams all!

Heyhey dont go to sleep I have a question.

Are there any 24 hour laundry places in this town?

we might like going shopping
if we could touch ourselves
while watching

Alrighty. What aspect shall I learn about tonight?

No Football 101 instructors in the house tonight?

I am here. What would you like to know.

Everything. :)

I guess I could just go and look stuff up as it comes to mind. I'm perfectly capable of doing that. I just figured I'd give you guys a chance to show off your knowledge. Makes for good conversation, too.

Do you know the difference between zone and man defense?

No. Nor do I know about screens.

Do we need to pay a premium to learn that?Or are you going to enlighten us for free?

Zone defense is essentially what the Chiefs run when they bust out the Cover 2. The linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks are each responsible for "zones" on the field - certain areas. If any offensive player enters that area, it is their responsibility to cover them.

Before a pass is thrown, the linebackers playing in zone defense will often hit any receiver entering their zones, to disrupt their route and throw off timing. This is legal as it is within the allowed area - five yards and less from the line of scrimmage (where the ball is snapped). The new illegal contact rules make it illegal for defenders down the field to touch receivers.

Man defense, as you might guess, is when each each defender is responsible for another offensive player. A linebacker will run with a tight end, a cornerback with a wide receiver, and so on. You will also see combinations of the two - quite frequently, in fact. In man defense the safeties will often support corners by playing deep zones, to take away long gains - hopefully.

Screen passes are pretty simple. The offensive line allows defensive linemen to penetrate into the offensive backfield. As they release their blocks, they slip out into the flat and block for a running back, who takes a short pass from the quarterback, who is often fading backwards (as if retreating from the pass rush). If it works correctly, it works for a long gain, as the linemen can block defenders downfield and clear space for the running back.

In essence, the screen pass creates a "screen" for the running back to run behind. It's kind of an extended handoff.